


Gods of Old Valyria

by SororTenebris



Series: Laena Velaryon's Library [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Book: The World of Ice and Fire, Dragons, Fictional Religion & Theology, Fourteen Flames, Gen, House Targaryen, House Velaryon, LARP, LARPing, Valyria, Valyrian Gods, Valyrian Pantheon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:27:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23120974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SororTenebris/pseuds/SororTenebris
Summary: The Valyrian pantheon, created for a larp inspired by A Song of Ice and Fire, in which it appeared as a book written by my character, Laena Velaryon.It had been structured to be a starting point for characterization and interpretation of the character, as well as to enrich the setting of the larp.It is extremely concise: being an in-game book, it had to be readable in few minutes by the players.
Series: Laena Velaryon's Library [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1605610
Comments: 9
Kudos: 14





	1. Proem

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Dei dell’Antica Valyria](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22241854) by [SororTenebris](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SororTenebris/pseuds/SororTenebris). 



> These gods are not canon, of course: they're just a suggestion of Valyrian lore, an inspiration, different shades of color on a painting; I'd like to further develop them, so... advices are welcome!

**GODS OF OLD VALYRIA**

**JAEHOSSA HEN VALYRIO UEPO**

_By Laena Velaryon_

※

**Proem**

A thousand Gods were worshipped in Old Valryia, but only fourteen are here enumerated: the Gods of the Fourteen Flames, the great volcanic mountains from where Dragons sprang forth. The Fourteen are the Gods venerated by the Dragonlords since the dawn of the Freehold, yet today very few know and pray them, and most of those few reside within the Black Walls that protect the heart of Old Volantis. They venerate the Fourteen as descendants of Valyrian Freeholders. 

In Valryia before the Doom, a thousand gods were honored, but none were feared. Indeed, the Dragonlords possessed the power to tame both the Dragons and the Gods of flame that had generated them; such a power came primarily from the blood that the Dragonlords shared with both Dragons and Gods, and it was precisely to preserve this power that the custom was born of preserve the purity and strenght of the blood through unions between relatives. The relationship of the Valyrians with their Gods fluctuated between veneration and domination, indicating the greatness of men so powerful as to compare themselves to divinities.

Gods of Old Valyria are neither male nor female, but now one and now the other, as changeable as flame; the same can be said about Dragons. Each of the Fourteen has its own sphere of influence, an aspect of the world which patronises. None of the attributes of the Fourteen are perceived as unwanted: each of them is necessary.

Those who worship the Gods of Old Valyria do not do so to seek comfort or hope, nor in order to achieve with a miracle what are too weak to achieve with their own strength. The Gods of Old Valyria are honored as their own ancestors, and as sources of the true power that resides in blood and fire. Each God has his own rituals, manifested both as ceremonies and as Paths to be coursed in order to reach full control of the sphere the God presides over.

※


	2. The Gods

※

**The Gods**

\- Four are the Gods who watch over the shape of the world:

 **Meraxes** , the Lone.   
God of Sun and Balance, she represents wisdom, justice, and order. Her hidden face represents his opposite: madness.

 **Caraxes** , the Unpredictable.   
God of Moon and Change, the Deceiver, patron of the mutability that allows creation.

 **Tessarion** , the Blue.   
God of Waters and Knowledge, she steeers learnings and memory, as much as the observation of the tides of time, the ebb and flow of past and future.

 **Balerion** , the Black.   
God of Earth and Conquest, whose spheres of influence are dominion and slavery. He's also known as the Harvester.

\- Four are the Gods who patron life and soul of men:

 **Morghul** , the Ancient.   
God of Death and Hope, Lord of the Wheel of Life. Burials and funeral rites are dedicated to him, and he's often associated to cyclical phenomena, like seasons.

 **Arrax** , the New.   
God of Births and Life, Threshold of Fate; he's patron of the Dragonlords' blood.

 **Syrax** , the Good.   
God of Love and Lust, and of indulgence towards the deepest impulses; she embraces both the dark and the bright side of Passion.

 **Vhagar** , the Sanguinary.   
God of Wrath and Destruction; lover of conflict and combat, embodies strenght and ambition. She's linked to calamities such as eruptions and earthquakes.

\- Five, at last, are the Gods who preside over the Dragonords' sources of power, thanks to which they are able to shape and dominate reality:

 **Meleys** , the Red.   
God of Dragon Bloood.

 **Vermithor** , the Resplendent.   
God of Dragon Fire.

 **Tyraxes** , the Sinuous.   
God of Time, personifies the qualities of tenacity, invincibility and eternal power. He is believed to be the god from whom the first of the Dragons was born.

 **Vermax** , the Straight.   
God of Word and Logic, father of language and mathematics. The keepers of knowledge were devoted to him.

 **Shrykos** , the Concealed.   
God of Witchcraft and Rituals, Master of Shadows, Prince of Schemes. He is the guide of the Valyrians, the one who made them different from other men, elevating them to Dragonlords.

\- The Fourteenth's name is forgotten: since his name was allowed to be known only to the sorcerer princes charged with maintaining the rituals for the control of the Fourteen Flames, it was never written, and therefore was lost in the Disaster. 

※


	3. The Doom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter reprises a paragraph of "The World of Ice and Fire", but Laena added some spice

※

**The Doom**

To this day, the cause of the Doom of Valyria is not known.

Many think it was a natural cataclysm, a catastrophic explosion caused by the simultaneous eruption of the Fourteen Flames.   
Such a thought is utterly ridiculous, because how could the Dragonlords, who answered to neither gods nor men, be overwhelmed by an accidental occurrence? 

Some septons foolishly claim that the Valyrians brought destruction upon themselves for their promiscuous belief in a hundred gods and more, and in their godlessness they delved too deep and unleashed the fires of the Seven Hells on the Freehold.  
Those septons would do better to remember that the Andals, and their Seven Gods, came to Westeros fleeing the power of Valyria, the only in this world who has ever been able to release the Seven Hells on something; those septons should not forget what happened to the Rhoynar and the Ghiscari, who at least had the dignity to fight, and those septons should remember of what lineage are the Kings to whom they have bowed for two hundred years.   
They should remember and fall silent.

The truth, as emerges from the surviving fragments of septon Barth's works, is that the sorcerer princes of Valyria had used spells to tame the Fourteen Flames for thousands of years, and that their ceaseless hunger for slaves and wealth was necessary to sustain these spells as to expand their power, and that when at last those spells faltered for unknown causes, the cataclysm became inevitable.

※


	4. The last Dragonlords

※

**The last Dragonlords**

The Fourteen created the Dragonlords, and the Fourteen destroyed them all.

House Targaryen, which escaped the Fate of Valyria thanks to the premonitions of Daenys the Dreamer, is the only exception.   
There is no reason to believe that these premonitions were not divine in nature, so it is safe to say that House Targaryen was chosen by the Gods of Old Valyria to be the only lineage of Dragonlords to survive the Doom; there are in fact other houses of Valyrian origin, both in Westeros and in the Free Cities, but the blood of only one of them has the power to command Dragons. 

Although the last dragon died, the Doom still rages over Valyria, testifying that the power of the Fourteen Flames is far from vanished, waiting for someone worthy of harness their power again: it persists, in fire and blood.

※

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \--- How I paired dragons' names and attributes to "create" the Fourteen --- 
> 
> I used both canon informations and Dedalvs' [https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dedalvs/profile] High Valyrian (I'll thank him when I'll find the courage)
> 
> \- Meraxes, Caraxes, Tessarion, Balerion: there was no etymological hints for those dragon names, so I relied on informations about their respective riders (Meraxes mirrors Rhaenys' personality, as Caraxes mirrors Daemon's, and Balerion both Aegon's and Maegor's) and scale colors (Balerion was black and Tessarion was blue) to pair them with the quartet Sun/Moon/Earth/Water, in reference to the four High Valyrian noun declensions developed by Dedalvs, whom I like a lot.  
> Assonance between the four names, also, helped, and so the first four were done. 
> 
> \- Syrax and Vhagar: again, I relied on informations about their riders, paying homage to both Rhaenyra and Visenya; also, these two gods' fields of influence (desire and destruction) were closely linked to my OC Laena's troubled personality and story. 
> 
> \- Morghul and Arrax: well, the name for the god of death was a pretty obvious choice and, consequently, Arrax had to fill the spot of the god of life - for no particolar reason, I just had to find associations for the less known dragons too. 
> 
> \- Meleys, Vermithor: for these two I followed their colors (also, "mele" means "red"), so I paired them with "fire" and "blood", a reference I had to make. 
> 
> \- Tyraxes: the only clue I could cling to was "tyvaros", the word for "snake" - it is a bit stretched, but it was a perfect match for Akatosh, one of the Nine Divines of The Elder Scrolls lore (I used to play Skyrim a lot, those days). 
> 
> \- Vermax: for this I was inspired by "verdon", "number", and the chance to pay homage to mathematics and language, and to stress the fact that my OC Laena was, among other things, a scholar. 
> 
> \- Shrykos: my favourite. I had to add another TES god in my pantheon, Boethiah, whom is linked with Dark Elves living near a volcan, and with mischief; plus, Shrykes are mentioned in A World of Ice and Fire, and described as mysterious lizard-people living beyond the Five Forts, one of the hinges of the world.  
> All this was a perfect coincidence, so enter Shrykos, half Boethia, half eldritch, half dark magic. 
> 
> \- The Fourteenth: at some point, I discovered with some embarassement that there were only thirteen "Valyrian" names of Targaryen dragons, while the gods had to be fourteen. At least, I appreciated the irony.  
> I figured out some sort of solution: since there was no name, the name had to be lost.  
> Maybe it will be rediscovered in some old dusty tome, who knows? So... keep reading! ;)


End file.
